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It could have been any one of a score of roses. This week they are beginning to dominate the garden and the scent from climbers high in trees sweetens the air everywhere. I chose Rosa complicata partly for its absurd name. How could a flower as simple as this couture dog-rose be considered complicated?
Perhaps it's because no one knows its origin or precise parentage. It seems to be a cross between Rosa canina, our native dog-rose, and a Gallica: an anglo-French marriage that has endured for centuries. In constitution it is a Gallica: tough, flowering generously for a month or more in June with wide-open flowers as wide as the palm of your hand among quite hard pale green pointed leaves. Its prickles are insignificant but it can put out shoots to reach 15 feet up into a tree (or in our case a thatched roof). Its bright pink fades in the centre to white with a boss of yellow stamens almost an inch across tipped with brown pollen. More perfume is the only improvement I can think of.
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